On this day in 1776, General George Washington wins the Battle of Trenton. 1776 had been a difficult year! The victory provided a much-needed morale boost. As discussed in yesterdays post, the first weeks in December found Washington and British General William Howe on opposite sides of the Delaware River. As the weather deteriorated, Howe had decided to go into winter quarters. Washington, instead, decided to make a difficult crossing across the Delaware. His plan was to arrive at Trenton at 5 a.m., well before sunrise, so he could launch a surprise attack. Instead, Washingtons men arrived at Trenton at...

Today is the anniversary of a day all but forgotten. On this day , Dec 23 1783 , Washington resigned his commission. It would be as if Alexander the Great simply walked from his empire after having won everything. "They wanted me to be another Washington," said the defeated Napoleon. King George III of England said "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.". To find a similar example one has to go all the way to 458 BC. Lucius Quintus Cincinnati after his victory as Romes emergency dictator simply went back to his farm. As Good as...

President Abraham Lincoln received this telegram from General William T. Sherman "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."

Christmas Eve, 1968. As one of the most turbulent, tragic years in American history drew to a close, millions around the world were watching and listening as the Apollo 8 astronauts - Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders - became the first humans to orbit another world.

After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term. In November 1995, Clinton began an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a 21-year-old unpaid intern. Over the course of a year and a half, the president and Lewinsky had nearly a dozen sexual encounters in the White House. In April 1996, Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon. That summer, she first confided in...

By Presidential Proclamation, December 17 is Wright Brothers Day. The President is requested each year to issue a proclamation inviting the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. Wright Brothers Day is an annual United States national observation. It is codified in the US Code and Wright Brothers Day commemorates the first successful flights in a heavier than air, mechanically propelled airplane, made by Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright brothers were American brothers, inventors and aviation pioneers...

Local residents recall date that will live in infamy SIERRA VISTA  Thomas Stoney Sr. still vividly remembers the paper that morning. It was a copy of the News and Courier, a paper his older brother, Oliver, delivered in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. His father had it on the kitchen counter that Sunday morning, where Stoney could catch a glimpse of the shocking news splashed across the front page. The big headline: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and it was an extra edition, Stoney recalled Wednesday at his Sierra Vista home 76 years later. At the time, Dec....

President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. On that day, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. The bombing killed more than 2,400 Americans. It completely destroyed the American battleship U.S.S. Arizona and capsized the U.S.S. Oklahoma. The attack brought the United States into World War II. The attack sank or beached a total of twelve ships and damaged nine others. 160 aircraft were destroyed and 150 others damaged. The attack took the country by surprise, especially the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor base. December 7, 2017 marks the 76th anniversary...

We were having an 8 a.m. coffee with family in their home on the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam when the music started.Ringing through the morning, as happens every day here and on U.S. military bases around the world, was the melody of The Star-Spangled Banner.O say can you see, by the dawns early light,What so proudly we haild at the twilights last gleaming As the song plays, people strolling through the neighborhood freeze in their steps, cars pull to the side of the road, and even children stop playing and stand tall, exactly as they have been taught, to honor...

On this day in 1783, George Washington says his final goodbye to a group of officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York. washingtons-farewell-to-his-officersNew York had served as the British headquarters throughout the long years of the war. It was the last city to be evacuated when the war was over! On November 25, however, the British finally left, and George Washington entered the city. (See November 25 history post.) Despite the celebrations and elaborate dinners that ensued over the course of the next week, the British hadnt entirely left the area. Some lingered on boats nearby. Others were still on...

On or around this day in 1861, Julia Ward Howe is inspired to write the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Did you know that this much-loved patriotic song has its roots in the Civil War years? Julia was the daughter of a Wall Street broker and a poet. She was well-educated and was able to speak fluently in several languages. Like her mother, she loved to write. She also became very interested in the abolitionist and suffragette causes. Samuel Howe was progressive in many ways, but he wasnt too keen on expanding womens rights. He thought Julias place was in...

It's an anniversary of sorts -- and should be something of a national holiday. Twenty years ago, Jim Robinson became FReeper #1 on this website, and we all are much the better for it. I found FreeRepublic.com via my news aggregator at the time, The Drudge Report. Quickly I lost interest in that site in favor of this my new home page. I found that Freerepublic is just not a news aggregator, but an intelligence aggregator. Thanks to the overwhelming diversity of interests amongst the FReeper community, we can go from the smallest subatomic particles to the vastness of inter-gallactic...

This November 2 is the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, sent from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community: "Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing...

Wednesday, November 22, 2017 ..... Any FReepers notice how little was said about the anniversary this year of the Kennedy assassination ? I did not hear anything about it in the media till a night time talk show from San Antonio discussed it that night.

On this day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivers his famous Gettysburg address. Did you know that no one knows exactly where he gave the speech? And no one knows precisely what he said? Several different transcripts of the speech exist, each with slightly different phrasing. lincoln-11-19-3His speech wasnt even supposed to be the main feature that day! Instead, a two-hour oration by a former Secretary of State, Edward Everett, was supposed to be the highlight. Lincolns two-minute speech would go down in history. Everetts has been mostly forgotten. Perhaps Everett saw the writing on the wall? He wrote to the...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) -- Bill and Hillary Clinton returned to their humble political beginnings in Little Rock, Arkansas on Saturday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bill Clintons presidential election victory and the 13th anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Centers grand opening. The event brought together Clinton's campaign staff and the friends and family who played a role in the 1992 election. Sheila Bronfam is a long-time friend of Bill Clinton and had a hand in creating the Arkansas Travelers more than 25 years ago. The Travelers were a group of roughly 600 campaign volunteers who toured the United...

Seventy-five years ago this month, the Soviet Red Army surrounded --and would soon destroy -- a huge invading German army at Stalingrad on the Volga River. Nearly 300,000 of Germany's best soldiers would never return home. The epic 1942-43 battle for the city saw the complete annihilation of the attacking German 6th Army. It marked the turning point of World War II. Before Stalingrad, Adolf Hitler regularly boasted on German radio as his victorious forces pressed their offensives worldwide. After Stalingrad, Hitler went quiet, brooding in his various bunkers for the rest of the war. During the horrific Battle of...

I'm amused, but this is a serious question. On the one year anniversary of her TOTAL humiliation by Donald J Trump, what do you think she's up to tonight? Hiding and getting drunk? Watching videos and reliving the rage? Attending a BS candlelight vigil with other hideous leftard women?

President Trump marked the one-year anniversary of his election by thanking the âdeplorablesâ who contributed to his âElectoral College landslide victory.ââCongratulations to all of the âDEPLORABLESâ and the millions of people who gave us a MASSIVE (304-227) Electoral College landslide victory!" Trump tweeted, along with a photo of him and his top aides aboard Air Force One flashing thumbs-up signs for the camera. Congratulations to all of the âDEPLORABLESâ and the millions of people who gave us a MASSIVE (304-227) Electoral College landslide victory! pic.twitter.com/7ifv5gT7Ur&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2017 Included in the photo with Trump are White...